When we were kings: How Italia 90 marked a turning point in our history

As Italia 90’s 30th anniversary is marked, Jonathan O’Brien looks back at photographer Tony O’Shea’s archive of a once-in-a-lifetime moment in Irish history

Fans of the Irish football team fill the streets of Dublin on July 1, 1990. Picture: Tony O’Shea

If you feel like you’ve seen and heard more about Ireland at Italia 90 in the past few weeks than you did in 1990, then join the club. As I type, RTÉ is cruising through another three-hour retrospective of what was a best-forgotten tournament, having shown four of Ireland’s five matches in full earlier in the month. (The Egypt game remains eternally unbroadcastable.) Up come the same old faces and voices, the same old goals ...